tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post6925678038611110469..comments2024-03-27T14:57:37.031+05:30Comments on Jabberwock: A rambling tribute to Red RiverJabberwockhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-88239405802025792702012-05-30T21:26:35.475+05:302012-05-30T21:26:35.475+05:30"What an experience it must have been to see ..."What an experience it must have been to see all this on the big screen!" On this note, I feel I must share this experience with you. Whenever they have an annual fest in JNU's School of Social Sciences, a group of my friends who organize the fest get the SSS Auditorium at their disposal. Business goes as usual during the daytime with seminars and whatnot. Nights are meant for movie screenings. A number of classics have been screened in the process and I've been fortunate enough to be a part of these spectacles. Now I know this doesn't qualify as big screen experience but it's still something with a screen much larger than your plasma TV and speakers as big as a buick. Red River was shown in 2009. I distinctly remember the moment when Dunson said: "Take 'em to Missouri, Matt!" and the yowling frenzy of yeehaws that followed. The hairs on my arm could have scrubbed the roughest of the rough floors:)<br /><br />Only this April, in midst of the fest, these classics were put up on the "big screen" - The General, Fritz Lang's M, La Grande Illusion, The Wages of Fear, The Night of The Iguana, The Americanization of Emily and Comanche Station. I saw Lang's M & The Wages of Fear for the first time. Have you reviewed any of these? I'd indeed love to see your writing on these classics.Rahulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14756837367515976152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-29990382114786072472011-01-29T17:46:30.982+05:302011-01-29T17:46:30.982+05:30Shouldn't you be wobbling your head from side ...<i>Shouldn't you be wobbling your head from side to side and watching men in tight silk shirts dancing around women in Bollywood crapola?</i><br /><br />Anon: oh but I do that as well, and with tremendous enthusiasm!Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-13365417184504759872011-01-29T16:28:19.817+05:302011-01-29T16:28:19.817+05:30Its always hilarious when Indians try and write ab...Its always hilarious when Indians try and write about good cinema. Shouldn't you be wobbling your head from side to side and watching men in tight silk shirts dancing around women in Bollywood crapola?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-51582051815744155072011-01-14T11:52:11.108+05:302011-01-14T11:52:11.108+05:30mayank: I don't think the Hollywood establishm...mayank: I don't think the Hollywood establishment was all that "liberal" back in the 30s/40s. Louis B Mayer was a Republican. So were several major figures including Wayne, Stewart, Capra, Gable, Cooper, Ward Bond and ofcourse Will Hays!<br /><br />Hollywood's emergence as a Democratic stronghold is, I guess, a more recent phenomenon. Which is why I think the stock of conservative actors appears to have declined a bit over the years among modern critics who are largely liberal. Whereas, legends with a "liberal" reputation appear to have grown in stature (Eg: Bogart, Hepburn, Brando, Peck among others)<br /><br />What else can explain the neglect of several popular classic westerns of the fifties even by good critics like Ebert. On the other hand, relatively lesser movies like <i>To Kill a Mockingbird</i>, <i>Inherit the Wind</i> and <i>High Noon</i> have become a part of the popular culture.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-22411352083979928202011-01-13T03:44:39.245+05:302011-01-13T03:44:39.245+05:30Yes Jai, indeed Wayne's political ideology mes...Yes Jai, indeed Wayne's political ideology meshed with what he made did create a combination that may not have gone down too well with the largely liberal Hollywood establishment. You are right about Stewart who was able to soften the blow as it were. I am going to buy the Red River DVD. <br /><br />Your book should be arriving soon.Mayank Chhayahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18433071842764460405noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-4437355133418974352011-01-12T20:12:52.464+05:302011-01-12T20:12:52.464+05:30Thanks, Mayank. I think it might have been a case ...Thanks, Mayank. I think it might have been a case of Wayne's conservative politics wedded to his macho reputation on screen - and the fact that the gung-ho ideology often spilled over into his films, especially the ones he directed. James Stewart was politically conservative and hawkish too, but he was a more versatile actor overall and his screen persona was gentler and more nuanced - which perhaps meant that people could watch him onscreen without thinking about his politics.<br /><br />Btw, in that <i>Liberty Valance</i> post, I've mentioned Kirk Douglas's recollection of Wayne telling him that actors like them should be playing "strong, tough characters" - though Wayne's performance in films like <i>Red River</i> did suggest that still waters ran deep.Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-47510230525065905462011-01-12T18:28:56.468+05:302011-01-12T18:28:56.468+05:30An excellent, excellent post Jai. It is particular...An excellent, excellent post Jai. It is particularly fortuitous because I saw the film only three days ago. As an aside let me mention that there are those in the US who believe that Wayne's conservative politics often get in the way of an honest assessment of his abilities as an actor.Mayank Chhayahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18433071842764460405noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-90317291171626349762011-01-12T12:06:02.931+05:302011-01-12T12:06:02.931+05:30P.S. More from that Hawks interview - about his im...<b>P.S.</b> More from that Hawks interview - about his impatience with Peckinpah's slo-mo action scenes: "Oh, I can have three men shot and buried in the time it takes him to get one on the ground!" (Or something like that - I'm relying on memory since I don't have the book here just now.)Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-81089118017591934762011-01-12T11:31:18.585+05:302011-01-12T11:31:18.585+05:30Jai: Thoroughly agree. But I suppose it can't ...Jai: Thoroughly agree. But I suppose it can't be helped. Every era has its own conceit. One can sense an attitude of condescension towards the silent era in Wilder's <i>Sunset Boulevard</i> for instance.<br /><br />This attitude of condescension towards the past pervades sport commentary as well, going by the surfeit of Bradman vs Tendulkar comparisons that hog the internet, notwithstanding a very vast difference in their batting averages.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-29850124299499294202011-01-12T10:50:03.396+05:302011-01-12T10:50:03.396+05:30...But the reality is that these 40s westerns are ...<i>...But the reality is that these 40s westerns are just as unconventional as anything from the 60s/70s...</i><br /><br />Shrikanth: in general, I get really fed up (and quite surprised as well) by the patronising attitudes towards old films that I see in many of today's reviewers/movie buffs. Even when they praise the films, there's an underlying assumption that those movies were "great in their time" (it's a phrase I see used so often) but that cinema has clearly moved on and become more sophisticated/superior in some overriding sense. I recently saw a couple of Tweets by an Indian mainstream movie reviewer (and a fairly good writer/serious film buff at that) who was saying some nice things about 1940s and 50s Hollywood films including some by Ford, Stevens, Wilder, etc - but it was hard to miss the faintly condescending tone; the sense that he felt those movies were essentially naive and that modern viewers need to be indulgent towards them. Really annoying.Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-5888454088851416262011-01-12T10:37:29.111+05:302011-01-12T10:37:29.111+05:30To my mind, Wayne is THE most underrated actor in ...<i>To my mind, Wayne is THE most underrated actor in movie history.</i><br /><br />Shrikanth: well, let's just say he was one of the most underrated actors among those who spent most of their career in leading roles (always a bit wary of sweeping statements!).<br /><br />Agree about that very rich period in his career - it also included Sands of Iwo Jima, which was one of his strongest non-Western performances. And a Nick Ray film <i>Flyin Leathernecks</i> (which I haven't seen). And a little later came <i>The Quiet Man</i>, which in some ways was such an unusual film both for Wayne and John Ford. (Ford credited <i>Red River</i> for showing him that Wayne could act, which gave him the confidence to cast him in those more mature roles in <i>She Wore a Yellow Ribbon</i> and <i>Rio Grande</i>.)<br /><br />Btw, I was reading a Howard Hawks interview in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Conversations-Great-Moviemakers-Hollywoods-Golden/dp/140004054X" rel="nofollow">this</a> great book yesterday, and he mentioned a conversation with Lee Marvin once, where Marvin wanted to make a Western "but not one of those John Wayne Westerns". To which Hawks tersely replied, "Yes, that would be quite difficult - you're only one-third as good as Wayne was." Must have been quite a comedown for Marvin the "serious actor"!Jabberwockhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10210195396120573794noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-20755883389125815832011-01-12T10:28:51.094+05:302011-01-12T10:28:51.094+05:30It's interesting that many of these Ford/Hawks...It's interesting that many of these Ford/Hawks westerns are dubbed as "classic" and contrasted with the so-called "revisionist" works of Peckinpah/Leone.<br /><br />But the reality is that these 40s westerns are just as unconventional as anything from the 60s/70s. Many of these "classic" films often challenge the moral primacy of the white male as opposed to perpetuating conventional myths about American Westward expansion.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8204542.post-37238906733782066062011-01-12T10:16:04.781+05:302011-01-12T10:16:04.781+05:30I found the Clift character a little too idealised...I found the Clift character a little too idealised for my liking. Especially the saintly way in which he refuses to retaliate when Wayne fires all around him towards the end.<br /><br />This film was a part of a very rich period in Wayne's career. Between '48 and '50, he worked in a number of very unconventional westerns. Red River, Fort Apache, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Rio Grande and 3 Godfathers were all released in this 3 year period. Each film so very different from the other and each one with a very distinct John Wayne persona.<br /><br />I can't think of any other actor in movie history who has acted in that many great films in a space of 2-3 years, barring perhaps Stewart in the fifties.<br /><br />To my mind, Wayne is THE most underrated actor in movie history.shrikanthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03898755392584822638noreply@blogger.com